


Anything

by amethystviolist



Category: Supernatural
Genre: Angel Wings, Cas has wings, Fluff, M/M, Profound Bond
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-04
Updated: 2016-01-04
Packaged: 2018-05-11 18:45:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,398
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5637883
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/amethystviolist/pseuds/amethystviolist
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Dean didn’t remember when Castiel’s wings stopped looking out of place. They sort of faded into existence naturally. Dean had always assumed that it was because the longer Cas stayed on Earth, the harder it was for him to keep in wings in another plane or dimension or wherever the heck they were when they used to be invisible. So why is Cas acting so weird about it?</p>
            </blockquote>





	Anything

First came the foggy shadows. Vague outlines of something briefly moving the air before disappearing again. Dean kept blinking his eyes, trying to clear away whatever had gotten in them, and thought nothing else about it, although Cas looked a little confused about his sudden eye spasms.

The next time Cas flapped into town, Dean could see what were grayish blobs, really, floating and moving around Cas as naturally as arms. This time Dean was a little concerned, whether for his own eyes or for Cas, he wasn’t entirely sure.

“Cas?” he asked hesitantly.

“Yes, Dean?” Cas gave Dean his full attention, lowering the book he had been studying.

“Are you… Do angels have, like, real wings?” Cas looked slightly taken aback, as though the question took him by surprise.

“Er, yes. They’re invisible to humans, however, and don’t completely exist on this plane. Why do you ask?” he asked, tilting his head to one side curiously.

“Uh...” Dean looked away and shrugged. “Just wondering.”

As time passed, great black wings covered in thousands of glossy black feathers slowly grew into sharper and sharper focus, until Dean could have sworn that he could reach out and touch them. He tried once, a hand stretching out almost without his permission, but just before his fingers reached where the feathers would be, Cas twitched slightly, and the wing drew back.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Despite the failed attempt to touch the soft-looking feathers, Dean conducted his own experiments whenever Cas was nearby, trying again to feel the feathers himself or observe them touching anything else. Dean discovered through his watching that Cas didn’t keep his wings tightly folded against his back as Dean might have previously imagined; in fact, they added a whole new expressive language to Cas’s actions. 

In battle, the wings often snapped out to their full length, and if that full picture of an angry angel wielding a sword and wings arching overhead was what demons saw, no wonder they panicked at the sound of a coming angel. The rustling sound that accompanied what Dean had always thought was teleportation, turned out to be the sound of wings flapping as the angels flew to their destinations. Dean learned more and more about Cas and his wings the longer he watched. When Cas was tense, his wings stayed high above his shoulders and twitched at small noises. When Cas was amused, the feathers fluttered slightly, almost like the wings themselves were laughing. When Cas was angry or upset, his feathers puffed up and the wings flared out slightly. Cas wasn’t at all the emotionally void robot that he had seemed to be at first. Cas had a wide range of feelings; he just didn’t express them with his face.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Dean didn’t remember when Castiel’s wings stopped looking out of place. They just became another beautiful part of the Cas that Dean had always known, and another way for Dean to better understand his friend. Although, Sam was strangely quiet on the subject, and had never brought up the change in Cas, even though Dean would have expected him to have been excited about it. Surely Sam would have jumped at the chance to do some research on why Cas’s wings only appeared recently, or why they couldn’t see the wings of any other angels. Was Cas letting them see his wings? Was he too tired to keep them invisible or on another plane or dimension or wherever they heck they used to be? Did other angels not trust Sam and Dean enough to display their emotions with their wings yet? If Sam wasn’t asking questions and researching, the answer must be really obvious. That or every hunter on the planet except Dean already knew about angel wings and how they appeared... Regardless of what the reason was, if Sam wasn’t mentioning it, Dean didn’t want to bring it up. It didn’t matter, anyway- Cas was still Cas, with or without feathers.

Some weeks later, long after Dean could see Cas’s wings, Cas showed up at the bunker, breathing hard and fast like he had run a marathon.

“Sam!” Dean shouted, hoping his brother could find them in the kitchen. Cas looked at Dean with an unreadable expression on his face, and Dean looked to Cas’s wings for a clue as to what he was thinking. Immediately, he noticed the dimly glowing rips and holes that marred both wings, which explained the tinny ringing in his ears.

“Dean,” Cas said, his voice raw and sore, “I need a place to hide.”

“Are you hurt?” Dean asked immediately, hurrying over to stand next to Cas.

“No,” Cas replied, but even without the visible wounds Dean could tell it was a lie.

“C’mon, Cas, we’ve got plenty of rooms,” Dean said gruffly. Sam burst into the kitchen, his gun outstretched. Upon seeing Cas, he shoved it back in his waistband and hurried to Cas’s other side.

“Cas, what happened?” Sam asked with concern.

“Long story,” Cas growled back, in obvious pain. Sam and Dean helped the injured angel hobble into the nearest room and sat him down on the bed gently.

“Do you… need anything?” Dean asked.

“I still want to know what happened,” Sam added.

“If you have any mace it would help,” Castiel replied, his wings tucked tight against his back.

“You want pepper spray?” Dean repeated with confusion.

“It’s an herb, Dean,” Sam explained tiredly. “It can help with pain relief. But,” he continued, now addressing Cas, “I doubt we have any here.”

“How about some Tylenol?” Dean offered instead. Cas shook his head to decline and began to undo his tie.

“But what happened? How were you hurt?” Sam insisted on asking. Cas gave a tiny sigh and let his hands drop to the bed.

“I found a secret cache of weapons for Mordecai’s faction, and I began taking them and hiding them across the globe. Unfortunately, they found me doing so,” Cas explained, his hands held up in kind of a ‘what can you do’ gesture. “They were angry, and tried to force me to give up the location of the weapons I took.” The hunters knew well enough what that sentence really meant: “They tortured me to tell the location until I escaped”.

“We need to ward against angels then,” Sam realized, and started to leave the room.

“No, Sam, I’ve done it already,” Cas stopped him. “They can’t get in any more than a demon could.”

“Why didn’t we do that before?” Dean asked Sam as the brothers exited the room, leaving Cas to rest and heal.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Days passed, and Dean could see the progress of the muscles and feathers knitting themselves back together, slowly but surely. But as Cas recovered and began moving around the bunker more, Dean observed another behavior with his wings that was apparently new. Whenever Dean was within each of Cas, whether it was at breakfast, or when watching television on the couch, or researching in the library, every time one of Cas’s still-healing wings would stretch out and curl protectively over Dean’s shoulders. Usually, Dean ignored it, or didn’t notice until the wing was already there, so he never mentioned it to Cas, since Cas never mentioned it to him. Perhaps Cas was just stretching his wings as they healed, and Dean was reading into it too much. Although, he did notice that Cas didn’t do the same thing around Sam.

It was around Sam that the confusion began, however. Cas and Dean were sitting on the couch, Dean pretending to research and really watching the episode of  _ Doctor Sexy _ that was on, while Cas was actually reading his own thick, dusty book. Sam, book in hand, came toward the couch, where Cas’s wing was outstretched over the seat. Dean waited for Cas to move his wing, which was still not fully healed, but Sam got closer, and turned around to sit down, and Cas wasn’t paying attention-

“Sam, watch Cas’s wing!” Dean snapped. Sam straightened quickly, whirling around to stare at the couch. Cas was already looking at Dean with a surprised, confused expression, and Sam added to that number.

“What are you talking about?” Sam asked. “Cas’s wings are on another plane, invisible. Right, Cas?”

“You can see my wings?” Cas asked Dean, ignoring Sam’s question. 

“You  _ can’t _ see his wings?” Dean asked Sam, his mouth dropping open. That explained so much. There was silence in the room, before Castiel stood, dropping his book on the couch. His wings were twitchy, and tense, although Cas’s face betrayed none of this.

“Dean, may I have a word?” Cas requested calmly. Sam shot Dean a pleading look from behind Cas’s back, which Dean happily ignored.

“Sure, Cas.” Dean followed Cas to an empty bedroom full of dust and cloth-covered furniture, closing the door behind them as the light flickered on. 

“Do your eyes hurt at all?” Cas asked instantly. “Any burning or even itching?”

“No,” Dean replied, blinking a few times. “My eyes are fine.” Cas sighed deeply.

“I’m very sorry, Dean,” he apologized. 

“Why?” Dean asked, confused. Cas looked almost ashamed, his wings drooping.

“I’ve been, ah, touching you with my wings a lot. It’s a gesture of affection among angels,” explained Cas. “I wasn’t aware you could see it. If it makes you uncomfortable-”

“No, it’s fine,” Dean interrupted. “Just a little weird that I can’t feel them. But not uncomfortable.”

“Do you want to feel them?” Cas asked curiously, a little hesitant. Dean nodded quickly.

“That would be awesome. If you don’t mind, of course,” he added hastily. In answer, Cas extended his right wing toward Dean, the black feathers slowly fanning out. Dean stretched out his hand, and gently brought it to the glossy black feathers. The first moment of contact sent tingles up his entire arm, but he was much too busy noticing the strange sensation of touching angel feathers. Cas gave a tiny gasp and twitched as Dean stroked his hand down the wing. 

“They’re so soft and silky, but at the same time they feel sharp enough to cut me,” Dean murmured. “Can they cut things?”

“If I want them to,” Cas replied with some difficulty. Dean noticed Cas’s struggle with words and quickly withdrew his hand.

“Am I hurting you?” Dean asked instantly. Cas shook his head.

“I’m just… Not used to having someone else touch them. As a human who can see my wings, your touch is particularly… noticeable,” Cas told him.

“What do you mean, ‘as a human who can see my wings’?” Dean inquired. “Why can i see your wings?”

“There are very few causes for a human to be able to see an angel’s wings,” Cas began, “But only one reason to see only one angel’s wings, and not all wings.”

“Okay,” Dean shrugged. “What’s the reason?”

“A profound bond of…” Cas’s face was tinged pink, and Dean was hanging onto every word. “A bond of mutual attraction or feelings.”

“Love?” Dean summarized, a little surprised by this answer.

“Yes,” Cas replied simply. Dean’s eyes narrowed before he let himself get too excited.

“And this bond has to go both ways for me to see your wings, right?”

“I assume so,” Cas responded with a small shrug. “There are very few human-angel connections this deep, and I haven’t done extensive research on the subject.”

“So, uh, if I were to k-kiss you,” Dean said, stumbling over his words like a lovesick teenager, “You would be okay with that?” Cas’s expression didn’t change, but his wings jumped to a higher position excitedly.

“Yes, I would be ‘okay’ with that,” Cas answered calmly. Dean stepped closer, his heart beating quickly, and took pride in hearing Cas’s breathing coming a little faster than usual as well. There was a beat of silence, before Dean was leaning forward, and his lips met Cas’s. 

It was something like kissing a lightning storm in a bottle, Dean reflected. There was power surging behind a glass wall, but kept safely away from breaking through. Cas’s lips were smooth and full of inexperience, but Dean didn’t mind that. He was ready to give Cas lots of practice. Behind Dean, the door suddenly opened, and the two quickly pulled apart.

“I knew it!” Sam nearly shouted, then caught sight of their reddened lips. “Uh, I’ll leave you to it, then, I’ll be in my room. Hiding. With earplugs.” The door quickly shut again, and Dean looked back at Cas, a smile on his face.

“So when I touch your wings it feels ‘noticeable’?” Dean repeated, a mischievous grin on his face. Cas gave him a fond but exasperated look.

“I think you know what I meant when-  _ oh _ ,” Cas cut himself off with a gasp as Dean reached up and again stroked the feathers.

“Do these things need to be groomed?” Dean asked innocently, the wings twitching happily under his touch. Cas’s answer was a strangled  _ yes _ . 

“Want me to help?” Dean added with a wolfish grin. Castiel gave him a weak glare.

“You’re suggesting more than grooming,” he observed, and Dean genuinely chuckled.

“Yeah. Maybe a little bit,” he admitted.

“Good,” Castiel said firmly, and returned Dean’s smile. “My wings aren’t the only parts of me sensitive to your touch.” Dean swallowed hard. He wasn’t sure how many more things like that could be said before he gave up on moving to the bed. Actually…

“Why don’t you help me find those, too?” Dean suggested, and Castiel seemed to agree, following Dean’s glance to the bed and smiling even more widely.

“Anything to help you,” Cas replied, and his wings curled around Dean’s shoulders as the angel moved closer.

“Anything,” Dean repeated, relishing the trust in the word. He gently began to push Cas’s coat away, and pressed his lips to Cas’s once more. 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

“You know,” Cas said in his gravelly voice, his body pressed heavily into Dean’s as morning drew closer, “My wings will probably need more grooming in the future. A  _ lot _ of grooming,” he amended, running a hand lazily through Dean’s hair.

“Anything to help you,” Dean responded slowly, his eyes half-closed in bliss, his arm tightening where it was wrapped possessively around Cas’s back. 

“Anything,” Cas repeated, and smiled to himself, looking at Dean’s sleepy look. Cas had a feeling that Dean would be willing to help groom his wings for a long time.


End file.
